http://calitreview.com/24673
And the abstract for the review says "Mass Effect 3 commits storytelling suicide". This comment is all the more striking since the review otherwise acknowledges the merits of the game, calling it the best in the series excluding the end.
Here's the relevant passage. I've bolded those I consider most important, and underlined what I consider the root problem:
Without giving anything away, (directly, as all subsequent links will contain some spoilers) the ending, by which I mean the final five to ten minutes, of Mass Effect 3 is easily the worst finale I’ve seen compared to the preceding quality that came before it – in any medium. At literally every level, it’s objectively terrible.
Sloppy execution that reuses art assets reveals that it’s a hurried inclusion. The under thought and over pretentious dialogue does nothing but create bizarre, confusing plot holes. It even commits the same sin The Devil Inside did earlier this year, and has the gall to add an advertisement by the producers at the end of the credits, which is frankly insulting.
Far more importantly though, it betrays key themes and values well established by the series thus far. Past player choice impacting the shape of events is negated in favor of an arbitrary and poorly explained “pick your favorite color” moment. Science fiction justification in an otherwise material world is abandoned for magical deism, since quite literally, a god in a machine appears. Unification through altruism and sacrifice is thrown out for pure nihilism: each of the choices you’re forced to make results in Shepard committing some level of genocide or another, with the benefits removed from any relatable emotional touchstone to the intangible space of far flung statistics. It even manages to make The Reapers, one of the more imposing forces of antagonism in recent memory, come across as foolish pawns.
Topping all of this is off, the entire affair seems to be a vain attempt at symbolism ala the similarly jarring conclusion to 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than offering even the minutest form of concrete closure. As there is no novel to turn to that explains what they were trying to attain and the steaming mess that exists is as disconnected from sense as it is, the endeavor rings hollow as metaphor. To quote Roger Ebert for a moment:
"If you have to ask what it symbolizes, it didn’t."
This conclusion is on the short list for "things that ruin dreams", right up there with “discovering that Santa isn’t real because your dad dressed up like him and died” and actually manages to steal the disappointment crown from Lost. It’s bad enough that fans have formed a protest group against it, complete with a conspiracy theory and memetic hero trumpeting their cause: forcing BioWare to change the ending.
I must thank this reviewer for giving me words to describe the ending of Mass Effect 3 in one sentence. Because all the inconsistencies and plot holes, as bad as they are as flaws, would all be forgiveable sins if they didn't contribute to this single fact:
That Mass Effect 3 has an ending that ruins dreams.
It's an apt description. As SF fans, we all project our hopes out to the stars, whether we realize it or not. Now comes ME3's ending, and it is as if Bioware had entered our brains with a flamethrower and burned them all to ashes.
Bioware, I'm pretty sure you didn't intend things to come across that way. You've been a master at evoking the emotions you want in an intensity I've rarely felt in any medium of entertainment, in ME3 even more than in the earlier games. So what the hell went wrong?
@all:
If there's anyone here who knows the person running the "Retake Mass Effect" facebook page, I would recommend that this description of the ME3 ending in one sentence be put somewhere in the header of the page.
Modifié par Ieldra2, 19 mars 2012 - 04:36 .
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